La Vuelta a Espana 2018 Preview

What is Vuelta?

For those unfamiliar with the sport of cycling, Grand Tour implies a lengthy and gruelling three-week event covering almost the entire country. The Vuelta 2018 a Espana (or translated into English as the Tour of Spain) is one of the three Grand Tours in the world. Tour de France, which takes place in France, and Giro d’Italia, a similar version in Italy, are the other two major events of such a nature. La Vuelta 2018 will be the 73st edition of the event, which was first organised in 1935. It follows up a successful Vuelta a Espana 2015.

Vuelta a Espana 2015 Recap

Fabio Aru of the Astana Racing team managed to win his first ever Grand Tour title. The red jersey, which is awarded to the winners of the Vuelta a Espana, was handed over to the Italian, as he managed to maintain an overall lead even after John Degenkolb’s success towards the end of the race. Degenkolb managed to win the final stage in Madrid after an excellent sprint. The overall results of the Tour of Spain 2015 turned out to be a major surprise since many expected the likes of Alberto Contador of Tinkoff–Saxo, Chris Froome of Team Sky, Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana of Movistar Team, and Vincenzo Nibali of Astana to be successful. After all, these riders had the experience of winning Grand Tours in the past.

A gruelling season combined with a focus on other titles led to a majority of these contenders dropping out. Seasoned punters and bookmakers will be aware that such Grand Tours are invariably won on the hilly and mountainous stages. Aru was impressive from stage 11 to 15 – which encompassed a majority of the hilly stages. Movistar Team, who had two riders as pretournament favourites, may not have witnessed the riders make it into the top three of the general classification results, but they came out on top in the team classification results. Find more cycling tips on our partner site https://oddsdigger.com/

Vuelta a Espana 2018 Favourites

As soon as the group stages for the Vuelta 2018 came through the Vuelta news, it became apparent that riders who do well on flights and hilly stages have a great opportunity to win the title. Compared with the 2015 edition which had six clear-cut high mountainous stages, La Vuelta 2018 only has three high mountainous stages – Lugones – Lagos de Covadonga, Urdatx-D
antxarinea – Aubisque, and Benidorm – Alto de Aitana. The rest of the race is dominated by medium mountain and hilly stages.

It would be no surprise to see a majority of the front runners like Chris Froome and Alberto Contador once again being ranked as the favourites for the title. It is highly unlikely that Aru – even with the experience from 2015 – would be considered as a good racer to defend the title. Vuelta 2018, though, could throw in a surprise just like the 2015 edition. The last two editions of the Vuelta a Espana started in the Andalusia, but the 2018 version will see the race spending much of the first week in the north-west of Spain. Bet online with oddsdiger, the top bookmaker site. Join now and get 30 usd in free bets.